The Open is comprised of five workouts over five weeks, and it starts with 16.1. Open workouts are identified by their year and the order in which they appear. The workouts will be released every Thursday during the five weeks of the Open, and you can watch the live announcement of the workout that will be streamed on the CrossFit Games website.

The announcement will take place at a different location each week, and two athletes (or more) will perform the workout live. After the workout is released, any athlete who has registered for the Open will have until 5 p.m. PT on the following Monday to submit their best score online.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE CROSSFIT OPEN?

The Open is the first qualifying stage of the CrossFit Games. Any athlete who wants to compete at the Games must first make it through the Open in their region.

While the purpose of the Open is to find the fittest athletes in each region to move on to the regionals, it’s also an opportunity for any athlete at any level to participate in the competition. It can add meaning and purpose to your training while also bringing your gym’s community closer together. (As a rule of thumb, the Open is the time of year where we see many people achieve important firsts: bodyweight snatch, muscle-ups, toes-to-bars, handstand push-ups, double-unders, etc.)

Most importantly, the Open will also give you some interesting data on your performance in the gym, which can be a guide for setting realistic goals for the following year.”

I thought I would begin with this great start from the games website itself. It explains the “open” pretty darned well. The whole article is definitely worth the read. HERE

But let’s find some reasons that I, as your coach, believe you, yes you, the one hiding behind all the peeps doing pushups, and thinking you will never be there, here a few reasons that YOU should do the open.

1. BECAUSE YOU CAN

Last year was my first year and the Boxes first year doing the Open. I will admit it openly, I regret not participating every year. We do not have to be a “competitive” box to compete in the open I learned that, and nearly 50 of your fellow athletes experienced it last year. They all found out that they could do it, they could find a mod that works, they could all appreciate, they could all do…what we do every single day we step into the box, and then they got to see all of their fellow competitors doing it to.

2. BECAUSE It’s FUN

There something magical and fun about laying it all on the line for a workout, and then anticipating, guessing, hoping, that the next one that comes on Thursday night will be something you can do, or have done, or at least doesn’t mentally scar you just by looking at it. Although there is certainly something to be said from accomplishing that which just scared you to death. The support and camaraderie that this competition fosters is almost worth the price of admission alone, that makes it incredibly fun, but when you let go of some of your personal insecurities and get used to putting it all out there on the line, that becomes one hell of a release, and ultimately a ton of fun.

3. BECAUSE YOU GET TO COMPETE

“but Rob, I have no desire to compete” ok.. Good. In fact, I have not plans/ desire to ever make it to regionals, and I hardly ever compete, but I will never miss an open again. Why? Because when you WOD in this, you will work harder than you ever have before, and it will show you what you are capable of. Ask anyone that has done it before. It brings out the best in your effort. That’s the reason to “compete” don’t do it to win, do it find a threshold you have never thought possible for yourself. You will enjoy it, I promise.

4. BECAUSE IT WILL GIVE YOU A GOAL NEXT YEAR

Yes, some of you have heard it before. Do not do the open for you, right now. Do it for who you will become next year. That’s the exciting part, when you have tracked this year, looked at your benchmark, and can treat the open like a sort of annual performance check. It’s not uncommon to see things like, – WOW, last year I couldn’t even pretend to do a bar muscle up and this year I got 5…etc. Wicked. Look to who you are going to be a year from now, or the type of athlete you want to be, and take the appropriate steps to make that dream a reality. (do the open)

And in closing let me bring one more point to light. You will never be “ready” That is the whole point of Crossfit. If the Open WODs pop up and the first thing you think is wow, no big deal, I got this (and it isn’t bravado) then the programmers aren’t doing their job. The open is the ultimate (for us normal folks) definition of the unknowable WOD. The only way you prepare for that is to do it!!!

I thought this one might be worth putting in front of your faces one more time…give it a reread.

Doing the right thing in the face of adversity. Willingly putting yourself out there, even though your viewpoint may be vastly different than the majority. Some people thrive under those conditions. Some willingly subject themselves to criticism from the masses. Some would not have it any other way.

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or
pause and reflect). -Twain

I fancy myself, at times, to be on the less occupied side of the fence more often than not, but I know most aren’t. I know that most are content to be a quiet face in the crowd. To move about completely unheard, and completely safe, and completely comfortable. Most of us like the anonymity. We like it. But I think perhaps…..just maybe….somewhere hidden, deep down inside…..past those memories of getting stuffed in the locker in 4th grade, way inside…… I think that the vast majority of us somehow want to be in the spotlight. I think somewhere in all of us we wish we could shout out the way we feel, the way we think, the truth of what our heart screams at us. Yet….we don’t. We continue on, living how we are “supposed” to, or how our fear allows us to. I could be very wrong. Perhaps everyone lives each day at the top of their game. Rolling through their lives like an unstoppable force….chowing down on Big Mac’s and six packs and loving their life. That’s probably closer to the truth. Maybe society is content to eat what they want, and live on manufactured food and drugs until they die at 76 years old, happy simply to have existed for that long. Well if that is you then you may want to stop reading a blog titled Fighting to Be Fit. I’m going to, for the sake of my intended audience, lean to the side of hoping that most of you are wanting something better, looking for it…wondering why you haven’t found it inside your globo gym, or your curves, or your weight watchers or your Jenny Craig, wondering why Shawn T can’t give it to you or why your experience at P90X was more like p90F (as in Fail). This post is for you……I’m going to let you in on a secret…….A fitness secret that Jillian Michaels doesn’t want you do know and a nutrition secret that Subway hopes you never find out…….in truth….the only Gym equipment you will ever need you were born with…(your body)……and the only nutrition advice you need is to eat real food and stay away from sugar as much as you can……if you were to stick with that you’d do pretty well. What exactly does that mean????? It means that there are plenty of people “working out” in Gym’s across america, using every piece of equipment for hours at a time, that can’t run a mile, do a proper pushup, or a body squat, or even hold on to the pullup bar, not to mention do a pull up. Likewise there are millions of people that pay nutritionists and or personal trainers to give them nutrition advice that they already know…… Sugar-Bad….Wheat-Bad……pasta-bad……Soda-bad…..candy-bad…..ice cream- bad….beer-bad…….Veggies-Good….nuts-good…..fruit-good……. and when I tell people things like this they always want to say…..but can’t I have ice cream every once in a while….all things in moderation right??? and to that I say….if that works for you roll with it……but the truth is that until you get out from underneath your very real addiction to carbohydrates…then nothing I tell you about food is going to matter….and until you get out of the mindset that I need to do chest and tris on monday, back and bis on wednesday, and legs and shoulders on friday…..no amount of my functional kettlebell workouts are going to work for you….especially if you are spending 45 minutes on an ellyptical reading a magazine and then convincing yourself that you are in the “fat burning zone”……..but again…I’m hoping that the majority of you out there are in search of a better way. I’m not going to call it the right way because I’m not that naive, but it’s definitely a better way. Eating a plant-based whole foods diet is simply a better way…..incorporating full body, compound muscular movements and body weight exercises is simply better than spot targeting secondary movers….Drinking Water will always be better than drinking anything else…. So for all of you that aren’t happy, that aren’t content, that demand a different way….have the Courageto believe there is a better way, have the Courageto find it…..Good luck all